The Ojibwe (/oʊˈdʒɪbweɪ/ ⓘ; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: Ojibweg ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (Ojibwewaki ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and throughout the northeastern woodlands. The Ojibwe, being Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and of the subarctic, are known by several names, including Ojibway or Chippewa. As a large ethnic group, several distinct nations also consider themselves Ojibwe, including the Saulteaux, Nipissings, and Oji-Cree.
According to the U.S. census, Ojibwe people are one of the largest tribal populations among Native American peoples in the U.S. In Canada, they are the second-largest First Nations population, surpassed only by the Cree. They are one of the most numerous Indigenous peoples north of the Rio Grande. The Ojibwe population is approximately 320,000, with 170,742 living in the U.S. as of 2010 and approximately 160,000 in Canada. In the U.S. there are 77,940 mainline Ojibwe, 76,760 Saulteaux, and 8,770 Mississauga, organized in 125 bands. In Canada they live from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia.
The Ojibwe language is Anishinaabemowin, a branch of the Algonquian language family.
The Ojibwe are part of the Council of Three Fires (along with the Odawa and Potawatomi) and of the larger Anishinaabeg, which includes Algonquin, Nipissing, and Oji-Cree people. Historically, through the Saulteaux branch, they were part of the Iron Confederacy, with the Cree, Assiniboine, and Metis.
The Ojibwe are known for their birchbark canoes, birchbark scrolls, mining and trade in copper, and their harvesting of wild rice and maple syrup.[6] Their Midewiwin Society is well respected as the keeper of detailed and complex scrolls of events, oral history, songs, maps, memories, stories, geometry, and mathematics.
European powers, Canada, and the U.S. have colonized Ojibwe lands. The Ojibwe signed treaties with settler leaders to surrender land for settlement in exchange for compensation, land reserves and guarantees of traditional rights. Many European settlers moved into the Ojibwe ancestral lands.
